SOLUTIONS TO TEXT PROBLEMS:Quick Quizzes1. Economics is like a science because economists devise theories, collect data, and analyze the datain an attempt to verify or refute their theories. In other words, economics is based on thescientific method.Figure 1 shows the production possibilities frontier for a society that produces food and clothing.Point A is an efficient point (on the frontier), point B is an inefficient point (inside the frontier), and point C is an infeasible point (outside the frontier).Figure 1The effects of a drought are shown in Figure 2. The drought reduces the amount of food that can be produced, shifting the production possibilities frontier inward.15Figure 2Microeconomics is the study of how households and firms make decisions and how they interact in markets. Macroeconomics is the study of economy-wide phenomena, including inflation,unemployment, and economic growth.2. An example of a positive statement is “higher taxes discourage work effort” (many other answersare possible). That’s a positive statement because it describes the effects of higher taxes,describing the world as it is. An example of a normative statement is “the government shouldreduce tax rates.” That is a normative statement because it’s a claim about how the world should be.Parts of the government that regularly rely on advice from economists are the TreasuryDepartment in designing tax policy, the Department of Labor in analyzing data on the employment situation, the Justice Department in enforcing the nation’s antitrust laws, the Congressional Budget Office in evaluating policy proposals, and the Federal Reserve in analyzing economic developments (many other answers are possible).3. Economic advisers to the president might disagree about a question of policy because of differingscientific judgments or differences in values.Questions for Review1. Economics is like a science because economists use the scientific method. They devise theories,collect data, and then analyze these data in an attempt to verify or refute their theories about how the world works. Economists use theory and observation like other scientists, but they are limited in their ability to run controlled experiments. Instead, they must rely on natural experiments.2. Economists make assumptions to simplify problems without substantially affecting the answer.Assumptions can make the world easier to understand.3. An economic model cannot describe reality exactly because it would be too complicated tounderstand. A model is a simplification that allows the economist to see what is truly important.4. Figure 3 shows a production possibilities frontier between milk and cookies (PPF1). If a diseasekills half of the economy's cow population, less milk production is possible, so the PPF shifts inward (PPF2). Note that if the economy produces all cookies, so it doesn't need any cows, thenproduction is unaffected. But if the economy produces any milk at all, then there will be lessproduction possible after the disease hits.Figure 35. The idea of efficiency is that an outcome is efficient if the economy is getting all it can from thescarce resources it has available. In terms of the production possibilities frontier, an efficientpoint is a point on the frontier, such as point A in Figure 4. A point inside the frontier, such aspoint B, is inefficient since more of one good could be produced without reducing the production of another good.Figure 46. The two subfields in economics are microeconomics and macroeconomics. Microeconomics is thestudy of how households and firms make decisions and how they interact in specific markets.Macroeconomics is the study of economy-wide phenomena.7. Positive statements are descriptive and make a claim about how the world is, while normativestatements are prescriptive and make a claim about how the world ought to be. Here is an example.Positive: A rapid growth rate of money is the cause of inflation. Normative: The government should keep the growth rate of money low.8. The Council of Economic Advisers is a group of economists who consult with the president of theUnited States about economic matters. The Council consists of three members and a staff ofseveral dozen economists. It writes the annual Economic Report of the President.9. Economists sometimes offer conflicting advice to policymakers for two reasons:(1) economists may disagree about the validity of alternative positive theories about how theworld works; and (2) economists may have different values and, therefore, different normativeviews about what public policy should try to accomplish.Problems and Applicat ions1. Many answers are possible.2. a. Steel is a fairly uniform commodity, though some firms produce steel of inferior quality.b. Novels are each unique, so they are quite distinguishable.c. Wheat produced by one farmer is completely indistinguishable from wheat produced byanother.d. Fast food is more distinguishable than steel or wheat, but certainly not as much as novels.3. See Figure 5; the four transactions are shown.Figure 54. a. Figure 6 shows a production possibilities frontier between guns and butter. It is bowedout because when most of the economy’s resour ces are being used to produce butter, thefrontier is steep and when most of the economy’s resources are being used to produceguns, the frontier is very flat. When the economy is producing a lot of guns, workers andmachines best suited to making butter are being used to make guns, so each unit of gunsgiven up yields a large increase in the production of butter. Thus, the productionpossibilities frontier is flat. When the economy is producing a lot of butter, workers andmachines best suited to making guns are being used to make butter, so each unit of gunsgiven up yields a small increase in the production of butter. Thus, the productionpossibilities frontier is steep.b. Point A is impossible for the economy to achieve; it is outside the production possibilitiesfrontier. Point B is feasible but inefficient because it’s inside the production possibilitiesfrontier.Figure 6c. The Hawks might choose a point like H, with many guns and not much butter. The Dovesmight choose a point like D, with a lot of butter and few guns.d. If both Hawks and Doves reduced their desired quantity of guns by the same amount, theHawks would get a bigger peace dividend because the production possibilities frontier ismuch steeper at point H than at point D. As a result, the reduction of a given number ofguns, starting at point H, leads to a much larger increase in the quantity of butter producedthan when starting at point D.5. See Figure 7. The shape and position of the frontier depend on how costly i t is to maintain a cleanenvironment the productivity of the environmental industry. Gains in environmental productivity, such as the development of a no-emission auto engine, lead to shifts of the production-possibilities frontier, like the shift from PPF1 to PPF2 shown in the figure.Figure 76. a. A family's decision about how much income to save is microeconomics.b. The effect of government regulations on auto emissions is microeconomics.c. The impact of higher saving on economic growth is macroeconomics.d. A firm's decision about how many workers to hire is microeconomics.e. The relationship between the inflation rate and changes in the quantity of money ismacroeconomics.7. a. The statement that society faces a short-run tradeoff between inflation and unemploymentis a positive statement. It deals with how the economy is, not how it should be. Sinceeconomists have examined data and found that there is a short-run negative relationshipbetween inflation and unemployment, the statement is a fact, thus it is a positivestatement.b. The statement that a reduction in the rate of growth of money will reduce the rate ofinflation is a positive statement. Economists have found that money growth and inflationare very closely related. The statement thus tells how the world is, and so it is a positivestatement.c. The statement that the Federal Reserve should reduce the rate of growth of money is anormative statement. It states an opinion about something that should be done, not howthe world is.d. The statement that society ought to require welfare recipients to look for jobs is anormative statement. It doesn't state a fact about how the world is. Instead, it is astatement of how the world should be and is thus a normative statement.e. The statement that lower tax rates encourage more work and more saving is a positivestatement. Economists have studied the relationship between tax rates and work, as wellas the relationship between tax rates and saving. They have found a negati verelationship in both cases. So the statement reflects how the world is, and is thus apositive statement.8. Two of the statements in Table 2 are clearly normative. They are: "5. If the federal budget isto be balanced, it should be done over the business cycle rather than yearly" and "9. Thegovernment should restructure the welfare system along the lines of a 'negative income tax.'"Both are suggestions of changes that should be made, rather than statements of fact, so they are clearly normative statements.The other statements in the table are positive. All the statements concern how the world is, nothow the world should be. Note that in all cases, even though they are statements of fact, fewer than 100 percent of economists agree with them. You could say that positive statements arestatements of fact about how the world is, but not everyone agrees about what the facts are.9. As the president, you'd be interested in both the positive and normative views of economists, butyou'd probably be most interested in their positive views. Economists are on your staff to provide their expertise about how the economy works. They know many facts about the economy and the interaction of different sectors. So you would be most likely to call on them about questions of fact positive analysis. Since you are the president, you are the one who has to make thenormative statements as to what should be done, with an eye to the political consequences. The normative statements made by economists represent their own views, not necessarily your views or the electorate’s views.10. There are many possible answers.11. As of this writing, the chairman of the Federal Reserve is Alan Greenspan, the chair of the Councilof Economic Advisers is R. Glen Hubbard, and the secretary of the treasury is Paul H. O’Neill.12. As time goes on, you might expect economists to disagree less about public policy because they willhave opportunities to observe different policies that are put into place. As new policies are tried, their results will become known, and they can be evaluated better. It's likely that thedisagreement about them will be reduced after they've been tried in practice. For example, many economists thought that wage and price controls would be a good idea for keeping inflation under control, while others thought it was a bad idea. But when the controls were tried in the early1970s, the results were disastrous. The controls interfered with the invisible hand of themarketplace and shortages developed in many markets. As a result, most economists are now convinced that wage and price controls are a bad idea for controlling inflation.But it is unlikely that the differences between economists will ever be completely eliminated.Economists differ on too many aspects of how the world works. Plus, even as some policies get tried out and are either accepted or rejected, creative economists keep coming up with new ideas.。